Beware of making Rose Bowl travel reservations too soon, or at least make sure they're refundable. If we win the West, but lose to Ohio State in Indianapolis, I think the Rose Bowl would take the Gophers. We'll be a big story and with a Rose Bowl trip being something a lot of Gopher fans thought would never come again, the demand for our allocation will far outstretch supply. However, I believe the Rose Bowl would not be obligated to take us if the Buckeyes were to beat us in the Big Ten Championship Game and odd things have happened in the past.
What happened ahead of the 1/1/03 Rose Bowl to Iowa is a cautionary tale about counting chickens before they hatch. Iowa and Ohio State tied for the conference crown with 8-0 records (no title game back then). Ohio State was undefeated, ranked #2, and headed to the BCS Title Game at the Fiesta Bowl against #1 Miami. Iowa was 11-1 and ranked #3. Hawkeyes fans assumed they'd be going to the Rose Bowl to face PAC-10 co-champs #7 Washington State who got the bid by beating co-champs USC head to head. However, there was no provision for replacing a BCS bound Big Ten or PAC-10 team with another team from those conferences. The Rose Bowl planned to pick Iowa as an at large team, but before it could do so, the Orange Bowl picked the Hawkeyes, wanting the highest ranked teams it could get and knowing that Iowa fans traveled in large numbers to bowls. The Rose Bowl and Iowa were furious, feeling the Orange Bowl had broken an unwritten understanding of sorts. The Orange Bowl contended it wanted the best match up and was within its rights to take Iowa. The Rose Bowl took #8 Oklahoma instead. The Orange Bowl then further upset the apple cart by getting #5 USC for its own Rose Bowl of sorts in Miami.
The time delay between the end of Iowa's season on 11/16/02 (they had what amounted to a bye the next weekend while the other Big Ten teams played their last games) and the bowl selections on 12/8/02 led to lots of Hawkeyes fans making plane, hotel, and rental car reservations for the Rose Bowl that were either not refundable or carried stiff cancellation penalties. One guy even got a good sized Rose Bowl themed tattoo on the basis of Iowa playing in the game. From our last game to the bowl bids going out, we will only have to wait a day or a week and a day, so we won't have that amount of time to go nuts. For that matter, no bowl can prevent a Big Ten or PAC-12 team from making it to the Rose Bowl anymore. However, beware of Rose Bowl execs wanting to please ESPN execs by passing over us for a name brand team. Nothing is official until it is official. Don't end up like the Iowa fan with the tattoo.